other than the Hope hoops its standard, feels so solid

I had a look at the new colours in the shop yesterday. I never liked the grey and was happy to see they had orange and green in the ranges this year, but up close I’m not so sure. Although they are nice bright colours, the finish is matt and with all the stickers I thought they looked a bit cheap and plasticky. Might have just been under shop lights though. Maybe they look better on the trail.

Anyway, colours aside I look forward to hearing how they ride.

in honesty I really didn’t like the colour of my T-130 works and preferred the colour of the 129 but in the flesh it looks pretty nice, although I am thinking of having it sprayed a different colour but only thinking about it, if it wasn’t for the spec I wouldn’t have gone for it

other than the Hope hoops its standard, feels so solid

That stem looks quite long compared to the one on my medium T130S – is that a large you’ve got?

@hammer
When you’re tearing though those trails this winter .. And you step off the bike to behold a frame looking like
Neils out of the “young ones” bath tub .. Who cares!?
Beside, with the amount of nite riding going on for me the next six months!!
With this bike.. For me the beauty is on the inside-

@prince, yes it’s a large

So an 8 n half mile trip round Epping forest later and I’m a happy bunny, the bike is awesome (unfortunately Me not so much) when they say built with UK trails in mind it sure does show, the great clearance had me through some pretty deep pretty boggy stuff today, couple of minor spills but my fault and in no way the bike lol, shocks worked a treat and I don’t think I have anything major to moan at

As a bit of a treat guys; check out my friend’s foray into filmmaking;
filmed a couple of years ago on my favourite local trail in Mirfield, West Yorkshire…i’ll say no more:

@lecky94 should be a 70mm stem on a medium/large but I might tweak mine once I’ve ridden it a few times, I have a few stems so will try a 60mm and possibly a 50mm.

@hammer looks nice, which Hope wheels did you end up with? Are they the Hope rims?

Lefty yeah they are the hope rims, I’m told they are on par with the Roam 40s,I’ve offered him £200 to keep these as a spare set when the Roams come in to which he agreed so that’s good a nice set of hopes for £200

Looks nice! Wish they did the Works in the orange.
Any comments on how the Pike feels? 35mm stantions at 130mm must feel very solid.

Hope hoops for £200 is a bargain! If you fancy selling them I’ll take them. Share the love 😉

@hammer
The hope wheels.. Is that £200 each or the pair?

Sorry.. Is it just the rims?

I think that it’s the pair of wheels which will be S/H once the Roams are available so that’s why they will be ‘worth’ £200 does that make sense?

Bit confused about whats bought, hired or loaned?
Just tring to follow the logic of grabing extra wheels!
ie- the cost of total real outlay over and above the £3000 for the new bike.
And what you get to keep for the money in the end?
-just curious.

@whytenite my LBS are loaning me some Hope wheels at no cost so when the Roam 40s arrive they’ll swap them over (including swapping tyre/cassette ect), again at no cost. I’m upgrading/changing my brakes so the price I’m paying takes that into account.

Basically I negotiated a good deal, added some different brakes, kept my good deal and now I’m getting the loan wheels as well.

So my real cost is lower than the list price and I’m getting the bike now rather than in November so overall I’m a very happy bunny!

The hopes were put on the bike as in loaned to me until the roams are ready BUT I decided to buy the hopes off him as spares as complete wheels for £200 for the pair

Well from my LBS I got my T-130, a woman’s classic bike for her indoors, a helmet, some pedals and a gopro hero 3 black edition for £3300

Oh by the way lefty, when you pick your 130 up apparently there is meant to be play in the seat something to do with the dropper post, I popped in the shop as it was bugging me

@hammer Do you mean in the saddle or the seat post?

Play in the saddle

Ok fellas,
Basically i have been scrolling and number crunching through the list price of
various related components for the T130 and deducting those from the list price of the bike.
A simple calc tells me that parts must be heavily discounted to manufacturer to allow room for margin on frame manufacture; the discount of which, some of that must find its way to retail buyer.
Suppose what i’m asking is… From your experience.. Is the list price for everything, even on a new out bike
Negotiable?

Not on the 2015 range BUT if ya go to a decent shop ya can get em to throw things in

So lefty I reckon you’ve payed an extra £100 for the Hope brakes and about £400 for the wheels…
Fair enough!

@whytenite Not sure how you worked those figures out? I’ve got upgraded brakes and the wheels are on loan so will be going back, the deal I’ve worked out with my LBS means I’m not paying extra to have the brakes or for the workshop time to swap brakes & wheels and I negotiated a good deal in the first place before changing stuff. Don’t want to say what I’m paying overall but it’s an amount I’m happy with and I don’t like to pay RRP for anything 🙂

Usually on new model year stuff you pay full RRP and the LBS throws some stuff in but as I have all the stuff I want I tend to try and get a bit off RRP. My LBS will match or very nearly Wiggle etc (for most stuff) for regular customers so they are happy that I’m buying from them rather than online and therefore are flexible on other stuff.

Did ya pick it up today lefty?

leftyboy – Member
I think that it’s the pair of wheels which will be S/H once the Roams are available so that’s why they will be ‘worth’ £200 does that make sense?

Good deal, and for the LBS they have only taken a small hit on the hopes as they would only be paying slightly more than 200 trade anyway. So they probably used a bit of their margin on the bike to cover the hopes and keep you a happy customer and improve their cashflow…..thats what I would have done in their shoes, so well done them 🙂

@hammer no sadly not I had to stay at work and run a crisis meeting! LBS rang to say the Hope Wheels had the wrong freehub body so couldn’t have picked it up anyway! Hopefully will be picking it up on Saturday as I’m not able to get to the LBS until then.

Oh thats a shame, hope ya get it soon

Hi Lefty,
So to answer my query, it seems your bike shop have favoured you be eating deep into their commercial margin;
To Which I say congratulations you are favoured…Only if they do that with two many other customers it could be them in a crisis meeting.. Lol- just kidding!
Hope you get your bike dammed quick and your knee is well on the mend.
Did a 12 mile trail last night. Got caught in a massive downpour finished soaked to the knackers, full of mud.
Laying in a nice warm bath … I thought- I love trail riding
-signing out, Be well all..

@whytenite I did a 6 mile flat ride in low gears on Sunday and it was fine so I’m going to build the miles and speed back up over a few weeks.

Trying to resist the temptation to do the Weds night ride with the ‘boys’ as that’ll end in tears!

LBS are doing a great deal but it’s not the first, won’t be the last (don’t let my wife read that!), bike I bought from them and there’s a group of guys, the night ride ones, who all buy from the same shop hence the good deal we get.

My T-130 Works is ready to be picked up – 9:00am tomorrow I will have my mitts on it! 🙂

Great stuff lefty, pics soon please

Finally had a test ride of the t130 and g150 today. Both were the works versions (which has spoilt me a bit as it is the S versions I was intending to buy).

Only got to test them at Ashton Court, which is pretty tame, but plenty of swooping singletrack and small rock steps to get an idea of how they handle.

G150 was first. I expected it to handle like a barge and be wallowy in the slow-ish paced single track. But it was incredible. Very planted and confidence inspiring and felt amazing through turns. It was also surprisingly manoeuverable. Pedalling uphill and along flatter bits of trail was ok, although I definitely noticed the weight and draggy tyres. But it was still perfectly acceptable. Felt amazing down the mini downhill bit of the course. It would be an amazing bike for bike park Wales. After that, I was almost loathe to try the t130, as the g150 is in stock now but the t130 not until November. Was so tempted to slap down the money for the g150s there and then. But to satisfy curiosity and to rule one out, I had to try the t130.

So next was t130 works. Firstly sizing, medium felt spot on for my 5’10” height. Definitely wouldn’t want bigger, with either bike. Low bottom bracket-absolutely no problem with pedal strikes, unlike the 905 I had once, which was appalling.

It too was pretty planted and confidence inspiring in corners, all the components felt good too. It pedaled noticibly better than the g150 but not significantly so. The key difference, was a markedly big difference in agility. It was just much more poppy, allowing me to work undulations in the trail and spring out of corners better. It also turned in a more snappy manner, while remaining planted and confident. And that front wheel was much easier to loft into the air.

The whole experience left me very confused. Ultimately I think both bikes will do a great job and cover all the same basics, allowing me to have fun at all the riding I do, which is nothing too gnar! But, both will just excel and suffer slightly in certain ways. The G150 is that bit more stable, confident and fast, and that extends to being in the air or taking a series of rock steps. Yet it remains manoeverable enough to make riding fun, even in the twisty stuff. It also has that extra travel in reserve for any big hits I might very occasionally encounter. The T130 meanwhile has that playfulness and poppy agility that I think will make MOST riding more fun and engaging.

So…on balance I think it’s going to be the t130, although I’m gonna sleep on it. And naturally, it’ll have to be the works version. 😉

Down at the cycle show today and the T130 certainly seemed to be popular. Was looking mainly at the S as doubt the wife will allow any more to be spent.. Price of a small car she yelled when I told her.. Bike looked good with top notch components although preferred the colour of the SX. The sales guy said they were becoming very busy with orders from their dealers and that they would expect models to sell out by March next year.. I know it’s just sales talk but can’t help believing it. Is this really likely though? Was intending to buy one as my 40th birthday looms next June.

@Hammer Quick 8 mile ride with my 11 year old son, so couldn’t really hammer it but the bike just wanted to carve and go fast! Very very happy and the Roam 40s arrived on Saturday.

Pics here:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/pqbtDk]IMG_0571[/url] by osxyboy, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/p8XPRL]IMG_0574[/url] by osxyboy, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/p8YnNu]IMG_0572[/url] by osxyboy, on Flickr

Lefty- how come the roam wheels have arrived already, I thought they’d been delayed until November?

Also, your stem does look long. The demo t130 works (medium) I rode today had a much shorter one, at least by the way it looks in your photos.

Any new G150 owners notice that the seatpost/seat tube is at a slight angle? So the saddle moves sideways as you raise it? It’s not much, but I can’t imagine it’s ideal, is this normal? Can’t just be my bike….

@dvowles82 My LBS had a set of Hope wheels all set up but the Roams showed up on Friday with no notice! Stem is a 70mm as re the spec looks short in the flesh!